The Diary Of Design Thinking

Edward Chechique is a Product Designer, with a successful extra-curricular track record in sharing and teaching Design and AI on Medium (6.7k followers!), YouTube, and more. Timestamps 0:00:00 Introduction 0:00:45 Who is Edward Chechique 0:09:18 Graphic design education 0:10:40 Discovering Figma 0:12:08 Should design leads stay hands-on? 0:14:30 Helping others become autonomous 0:17:57 Remaining efficient in Figma 0:22:28 Figma's hidden shortcut 0:26:37 Variables, Dev mode, Advanced prototyping: yay or nay? 0:32:11 Designer efficiency 0:36:20 Famous Spanish slogans 0:39:11 How design workflows have changed since ChatGPT 0:45:40 GPT 3.5, or 4.0? 0:50:08 Disadvantages of using ChatGPT and AI 0:55:01 Keeping your authentic voice, even with AI tooling 0:58:05 Synthesizing your own AI voice 0:59:18 Midjourney, stolen art, and stress testing prompts 1:04:00 Defending against fake images and videos 1:06:10 Using chatbots to maintain your friendships 1:09:11 Future for designers 1:14:01 Last words from Edward Full show notes available at https://chk.fyi/0UzN8G

Whether UX, UI, product, research or content design—this one's for all the job hunters and newly minted hiring managers. Our guidance and reassurance in the rapids of the 2023 job market. We cover balancing the role versus culture, negotiating salary, optimising your CV, landing remote roles, the interview process as it is today, and how to onboard your first hire. Yes, it's tough out there, but it's not impossible. If we can connect you to anyone or help review your CV for example, drop us a line on LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckwired/ and https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonhoang23/. Full notes and resources at: https://chk.fyi/FocFni Timestamps 00:00 Introduction 00:47 Episode starts 01:50 Job hunting in 2022/2023 01:50 Simon's most recent job hunt 05:40 Role, or culture? 07:00 Making your mark 07:44 Recruiters: yay or nay? 12:29 Negotiating salary 14:59 Optimising your CV 17:47 Design interview processes 23:31 Whiteboard exercises 26:52 What to do when you're stuck 31:30 Hiring and managing your time 36:42 Interns versus Seniors 38:48 Onboarding a new hire 44:01 Does design education prepare you for industry? 47:26 What to look for in a hire? 50:41 Memes and conclusions

Kevin Coyle, currently working with Brad Frost and friends at Big Medium, is an incredible all-star professional in tech currently focusing on frontend. While we cover the professionally interesting work of building a Design System within the giant that is Pfizer, we also cover some lighter topics such as AI stealing jobs, Blu-ray is ancient, and Apple's Vision Pro. What we discussed 0:00:00—Introduction 0:00:49—Welcome Kevin Coyle 0:02:29—How did you get into Design Systems? Where did it all start? 0:06:39—What it's like working on Helix, Pfizer's Design System 0:09:20—Overcoming resistance to adopting a system 0:13:28—Origins and intentions behind DatePickers and Hero sections 0:16:42—How to approach each new client 0:19:17—Thorny experiences of open source development 0:20:39—Where does an "open mindset" come from? 0:23:00—"Design systems are simply a collection of decisions" 0:24:34—How strict to be following your system guidelines? 0:29:54—What's the future of Design

Dan Donald, previously Zeroheight and Autotrader, is not only an engineer, designer, and product person rolled into one, but an absolute generous gem of a human being. We're privileged to have him with us to discuss all things Design Systems. How do we start one? What's the best tool? Will ChatGPT change how we approach them? Plus: what our beers of choice were, Dan's celebrity doppelgänger, and some very wise words from Dan: "Perfect is the enemy of the good". What we discussed Full show notes with links and resources available at: https://chk.fyi/jHDcgY

Designers often have an easier time progressing into leadership positions, we think, because giving feedback and critique is core to a healthy design culture. We discuss how to do it right, how to handle aggressive feedback, and techniques for lowering your defences while maintaining your dignity. …and when you grab your iconic GTA weapons during feedback. Full show notes and links to resources: https://chk.fyi/SCfubd

Post-pandemic, we’ve gone from home bound to remote whenever we can, but is it even possible for a modern Product Designer? We discuss the ultimate desk setup, the worst desk setup, what belongs in your “go-bag”, and what setup graduates and freshly minted designers might need. Plus, a couple books we can recommend, and tips to avoid causing your colleagues ear bleeds. What we discussed worst Don’t worry, these are all affiliate free 😉. For full show notes, visit https://medium.com/north-west-ux/should-product-designers-work-remotely-and-the-ultimate-desk-setup-for-ux-ui-work-8fb6b474d4bb

Whether you’re struggling to reach Senior level, or spinning your wheels pushing to Lead and beyond, it genuinely takes some hustling and some luck to do it. We cover the trials you’ll encounter on your journey getting there, share some advice on leading your team through it, and tips on getting decisions made on your projects. Oh, and a little first-aid for dogs. Get the full show notes here: https://medium.com/north-west-ux/do-designers-need-to-draw-stuck-in-senior-and-lead-positions-and-when-stakeholders-disagree-64e97c450cba

Finding a new UX job can be daunting in itself, but it’s miles harder if you’ve just been laid off. What’s worse? Imagine if on your first day, it wasn’t what you signed up for—your manager informs you the role has changed responsibilities. Bummer. We cover how we navigate these difficulties in our own career journeys, wrangle with Webflow, and shine a transparent light on professionally disagreeing with your stakeholders. Hint: rhymes with shdata, and shmuser shmesearch. What we discussed Full show notes available here: https://medium.com/north-west-ux/bait-and-switch-jobs-a-layoff-survival-guide-and-the-art-of-disagreeing-with-stakeholders-bdca333f17d

Hey Design Thinkers! Refocusing on life and career so I am on pause until 2023. Potentially bringing a cohost onboard for season 2 so watch this space. Let’s get inspired and stay curious folks. Peace.

In this episode, I talk about the key principles I have learned throughout my journey as a UXer. Progressing further in my career.

Tom takes us on his career journey from starting in the profession of Law, then working as a Personal Trainer to tackling the Costa Coffee’s Design System as the Web Developer.

Living by the mantra "Seek first to understand, then be understood", James talks about what it takes to be a great leader. As a leader, you’re only as successful as the team.

In this episode of The Diary Of Design Thinking Podcast, Kosta walks us through the means of improving products and understanding how users interact with them in real world conditions.

In this episode, Chuck walks us through his processes using his experience as a UX Designer and Software Engineer. We also touched upon the process of setting up your OKRs.

Iulia Cornigeanu shows us her UX research process and teaches us techniques to improve our research skills. Top tip - there are no such thing is silly questions.

In this episode of The Diary of Design Thinking Podcast with Dan we talk about his data analytics approach at Costa Coffee.

In this first ever episode of The Diary of Design Thinking Podcast with Stacey we talk about her design process within software.

A deep dive into the idea behind The Diary Of Design Thinking Podcast and a short story about the host Simon Hoang.